"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Blogging As An Avocation

I was thinking just the other day about blogging and why we are so passionate about it. Prior to September I would no more have started a blog than I would have grown a third eye in the middle of my forehead.

But, here I am, at the end of December, continuing to share my most intimate thoughts and memories with others on this wondrous thing we call the Internet.

We don't worry much about identify theft because most of us remain anonymous. Yes, you may know our first names and you may know the approximate areas we live in. You may know our spouses', children's, and grandchildren's names (and occasionally see their pictures). You may know our talents (writing, gardening, drawing, photography, quilting) and you may know our culinary proclivity for overindulgence (chocolate). You may know what our professions are, both past and present. Some of you may even know what we looked like when we were younger.

We use this anonymity to relate to other like-minded people in a way that might never happen during the normal course of our lives. We even share the good and the bad things that occur in our daily lives.

In a way, bloggers are like fishermen. We throw a line out into the ethernet and sometimes we catch a big one. One thing may lead to another, and before we know it, we have a mess of fish on our stringer. I am thankful that I took the bait from my daughter and started blogging because today I am able to correspond with a whole mess of interesting folks from all over the world.

I find myself cruising other blogs and am amazed almost daily with the variety that is out there. Some blogs are really raunchy, some are in foreign languages, some are political, some are religious, some are friendly, some are angry, some sound dangerous, some sound interesting, and some are filled with ?????????????s (which I don't know what this means). I'm still learning a lot about how to navigate, how to add pictures, and how to link. I continue to be amazed at the talented people out there and the interesting look of their blogs (I picked one of the standard templates because I don't know how to make mine look as unusual as Sharon's).

One of the things I hesitated to do when I first got into this pastime was comment on someone else's blog. But, one day I just couldn't help myself. Because I had worked in the healthcare profession during my working life, I found a site called Ah, Yes, Medical School (The Fake Doctor), and left a comment. In return, I received a comment from our good friend Jellyhead. One thing led to another, and now I correspond with a lot of other interesting people from all walks of life and from areas around the globe. So, thanks, Jelly, for making my life so much more interesting. And, thanks to all my other blogfriends who leave comments and those who don't.

The great thing about computers is that you can communicate so rapidly. You can leave a post one minute and receive a comment back the next. It's better than writing letters.

It's amazing how many times a day I find myself going back to my computer to check for comments and to check other blogs for new posts. I've said it before. Blogging is addictive and I love it. Some of us are poor writers and poor spellers, but it really doesn't matter. We still get it and we can still enjoy it.

I find that the most difficult thing about blogging is coming up with an interesting topic to write about without sounding like a complete idiot. For those of us who have reached that point, we sometimes write about simpleton topics like Blogging As An Avocation. (You can tell me if you were completely bored.) Or, you can write about something as interesting as relating your experiences with upchucking french fries while sick with asthma.

So, I hope that blogging is not just a passing fancy and that those who I have made friends with these past several months will continue to visit with me as I will continue to visit with them.

Happy New Year to you all, dear blogfriends.

P.S. I was reminded that husband has been encouraging me to write for 37 years. So, to husband I say, thanks for encouraging (nudging) me to write and to blog. He started his way before any of us.

So will I continue to visit you... your on my Favorites.....I agree with you, I never would have thought that I would be blogging, in fact up until my daughter Lori started blogging, I didn't even know what blogging was....but now I do and also love the variety of friends we make.....HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIEND......

You sound like me! I actually was using yahoo groups for a long time to keep in touch with some good friends in Minnesota. One day one of them decided to put up a blogger site. So we started visiting her site more and more until we all were convinced we should get rid of our yahoo group and start blogging on our own! I have met tons of awesome people this way! Its the new form of online chat.

So true, Motherkitty. Funny thing is, many of us seem to have daughters who encouraged us to start. Not sure if mine regrets it now because in conversation I refer to things my blogger friends have written as though they were close personal friends, which is how I feel about them anyway. It's a great way to start writing, if that's what you've been itching to do.